Illustration by Pete Gamlen
“More, more, more!” that’s what John Faherty, Warner-Huguenin executive director of the Mercantile Library, wants to see when the city’s membership library resumes operations this fall at its namesake building on Walnut Street.
Since January, the Mercantile Library building has undergone a $80 million renovation. While the library’s space was stripped to bare walls, staff and books retreated to temporary quarters (the Mini-Merc) in the Fifth Third Bank complex on Fountain Square. The Cincinnati Regional Chamber and the Museum Center accommodated library events for the duration. On reopening, the library will nearly double in size as it takes over the entire 11th and 12th floors.
“This is a chance for a rebirth,” Faherty says. “You seldom get the opportunity for a 189-year-old institution to remake itself.”
In addition to the expanded floorspace, visitors will find 15,000 new books on the shelves, added to the 80,000 pre-construction volumes. Cedric Rose, the library’s “Collector” (and a Cincinnati Magazine contributor) has spent months ordering volumes to align with the interests of the library’s diverse membership. “We build our collection by listening to what our people want,” he says.
Over the years, the Mercantile Library has contributed prominently to city history. The Chamber of Commerce grew out of discussions there. So did the recently sold city-owned railroad. An early adopter of technology, the library boasted Cincinnati’s first telegraph machine and still holds the oldest telephone number in town. Visiting speakers have included literary megastars from Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry David Thoreau to Ray Bradbury, Julia Child, and Margaret Atwood.
Next year, the Mercantile Library will celebrate 190 years of democratizing knowledge. Founded in 1835 as the Young Men’s Mercantile Library, the institution has, for most of its existence, occupied the same address at 414 Walnut St., although in four successive buildings. When the first building on that site burned in 1845, members raised $10,000 toward rebuilding, in return for a lease of 10,000 years, at $1 annually, renewable forever. Alphonso Taft drew up the document, and it has withstood every legal challenge since.
That lease gives the Mercantile Library a distinct advantage over the dozen or so remaining membership libraries in the U.S. The Mercantile has gained a reputation for stellar events as well as its books, and Faherty says the lease makes it all possible.
“We lose money on every event we have, but we are able to do that because of our lease,” he says. “It is our great good fortune but brings with it a great responsibility. When I got here, I was told this was the literary center of Cincinnati. When I looked at the books we had and the events we scheduled, it struck me that we were the literary center for a particular type. Too many of our speakers looked alike.”
Recent guests have included voices as diverse as Chuck D, Claudia Rankine, Colson Whitehead, Susan Orlean, and Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. In addition, the Mercantile Library hosts meetings and discussions for groups as varied as the Walnut Street Poetry Society, the Black Experience Book Club, and popular yoga classes.
More and more members have found the Mercantile Library to be a comfortable location to study, hang out, or work remotely. That trend accelerated during the pandemic. The expansion includes a new room set aside for affiliated clubs and discussion groups. “With the addition of the new event space, we can accommodate daytime programs without disrupting the members who work and study there,” says Amy Hunter, head of events and marketing.
Faherty, for one, is ready to get back into that space. “I did not know how much I would miss the library,” he says. “I miss the way it smells. I miss the people. It will be a homecoming for our community.”
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